Woo Hoo – it flies!
07-14-2008, 10:53 AM
#1
Thread Starter
Woo Hoo – it flies!
Finally got a chance to fly my Herr Lil Extra and for a sport plane it’s a nice flyer - 4 successful flights since the rebuild.
It’s powered by an OS .10 FP, has 2 HS-81MG’s for the rudder/elevator, 2 HS-65HB’s for the ailerons, a cheap 9g for the throttle, Berg 7-ch receiver and a 720 mAh NiMh receiver battery. Overall she sits just at a portly 29 ounces – 4 heavier than Sig/Herr calls out for the stock set-up with HS-55’s and a Norvel .074.
First flight attempt ended in a snap roll after I forgot to remove the retarded mode from another plane (should have just cleared it out but decided it would be easier to just change the programming – forgot to remove a P-mix). After the rebuild I grabbed a prop and didn’t look closely at it – wrong prop. It did fly, but was very slow –clocked on radar at full throttle at 24 mph heading into the radar, and 30 mph away after a 6 mph wind gust dropped down. After less than 5 minutes I ended up with a dead stick landing. I was seriously considering a .15 after that flight and changing to a 4 ounce fuel tank, but noticed I used the wrong prop.
After changing to a MAS 7 X 4 I flew it off our turf runway – the first successful flight was off a paved runway. I had to add ½ of lead to the nose to balance the plane at the middle of the recommend range for the first flight and removed it for the second flight. This flight was in winds about 4 mph and the prop change made all the difference. A couple of clicks leaner on the engine and this one went 6 minutes at mostly ¾ to full throttle. It flew quite nicely – loops from level flight, gets about 100’ vertical and does a wonderful 2 rolls per second on high rates. Again another deadstick from running out of fuel but second and third flights did end under power.
I flew 3 flights before it got too dark and I had to start cleaning up. On the last flight I leaned the engine a bit more and flew it at ½ throttle most of the 5 minute flight (I have the timer set on the 7C to start when the throttle is one click off idle). I ran the rest out on the bench at full throttle and it tool over 4 minutes to empty the tank – quite amazing what a total of 5 clicks leaner on the mixture can do. I still can’t get a good clean snap roll, but it’s also a bit nose heavy right now – I’ll put 1/8 ounce of lead on the tail and increase the high-rate control movements. Moving the battery aft is not an option since it sits right next to the throttle servo, and with all the repair work/reinforcement I’ve done on the fuselage just behind the wing I don’t want to open that up again. Take-off’s seem to require letting it run on the ground with neutral elevator, then apply up. If up his held the tail wheel just creates drag and won’t let it accelerate (longer than normal grass and the wheel pants don't help either).
Overall I’m happy with the way its flying on the .10 FP, and everybody at the field was quite surprised to learn it was a .10, not a .15. While a .15 would give much better vertical, don’t want to add any more weight to it. I’ve got the .10 FSR to go on it and I think the performance increase will be enough to warrant that engine over the .15 and not get any weight gain. And if the FSR doesn’t give the performance I’d like, there is always that Macs header and tuned pipe I have sitting there for it that should boot it very close to the power of a .15 FP.
Hogflyer
It’s powered by an OS .10 FP, has 2 HS-81MG’s for the rudder/elevator, 2 HS-65HB’s for the ailerons, a cheap 9g for the throttle, Berg 7-ch receiver and a 720 mAh NiMh receiver battery. Overall she sits just at a portly 29 ounces – 4 heavier than Sig/Herr calls out for the stock set-up with HS-55’s and a Norvel .074.
First flight attempt ended in a snap roll after I forgot to remove the retarded mode from another plane (should have just cleared it out but decided it would be easier to just change the programming – forgot to remove a P-mix). After the rebuild I grabbed a prop and didn’t look closely at it – wrong prop. It did fly, but was very slow –clocked on radar at full throttle at 24 mph heading into the radar, and 30 mph away after a 6 mph wind gust dropped down. After less than 5 minutes I ended up with a dead stick landing. I was seriously considering a .15 after that flight and changing to a 4 ounce fuel tank, but noticed I used the wrong prop.
After changing to a MAS 7 X 4 I flew it off our turf runway – the first successful flight was off a paved runway. I had to add ½ of lead to the nose to balance the plane at the middle of the recommend range for the first flight and removed it for the second flight. This flight was in winds about 4 mph and the prop change made all the difference. A couple of clicks leaner on the engine and this one went 6 minutes at mostly ¾ to full throttle. It flew quite nicely – loops from level flight, gets about 100’ vertical and does a wonderful 2 rolls per second on high rates. Again another deadstick from running out of fuel but second and third flights did end under power.
I flew 3 flights before it got too dark and I had to start cleaning up. On the last flight I leaned the engine a bit more and flew it at ½ throttle most of the 5 minute flight (I have the timer set on the 7C to start when the throttle is one click off idle). I ran the rest out on the bench at full throttle and it tool over 4 minutes to empty the tank – quite amazing what a total of 5 clicks leaner on the mixture can do. I still can’t get a good clean snap roll, but it’s also a bit nose heavy right now – I’ll put 1/8 ounce of lead on the tail and increase the high-rate control movements. Moving the battery aft is not an option since it sits right next to the throttle servo, and with all the repair work/reinforcement I’ve done on the fuselage just behind the wing I don’t want to open that up again. Take-off’s seem to require letting it run on the ground with neutral elevator, then apply up. If up his held the tail wheel just creates drag and won’t let it accelerate (longer than normal grass and the wheel pants don't help either).
Overall I’m happy with the way its flying on the .10 FP, and everybody at the field was quite surprised to learn it was a .10, not a .15. While a .15 would give much better vertical, don’t want to add any more weight to it. I’ve got the .10 FSR to go on it and I think the performance increase will be enough to warrant that engine over the .15 and not get any weight gain. And if the FSR doesn’t give the performance I’d like, there is always that Macs header and tuned pipe I have sitting there for it that should boot it very close to the power of a .15 FP.
Hogflyer
07-15-2008, 12:16 PM
#4
Thread Starter
RE: Woo Hoo – it flies!
Thanks guys. I like this little bird. It’s an ideal park flyer and should be able to fly from a football field, high school track, or baseball field. The .10 FP flies it fine, and seems to be working well with the 2 ounce tank. HS-65HB’s all around and a smaller battery may be able to drop another ounce off it – that’s the way I’d go if I was to build another one. I’ll know more about the flight time when I start timing the runs after the engine gets broken in better, work on the balancing to try and get some decent snap rolls and get the control throws better adjusted.
Hogflyer
Hogflyer
